NEW YORK—Hour after hour on Tuesday, Eli Dakis kept a one-man vigil over hockey's labor negotiations, taking advantage of the unseasonably warm Manhattan afternoon and evening to stand on the corner of 43rd Street and 8th Avenue, waiting for news on the NHL lockout.

There wasn't much news, at least not much to report, but the most encouraging sign in months came after midnight, when NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and his second-in-command counterpart at the NHLPA, Steve Fehr, gave a brief joint press conference to announce that talks had been constructive, and would continue on Wednesday.

"I think everybody wants to get a deal done, and so I think that's encouraging," Daly said. "We look forward to hopefully making more progress tomorrow."

Said Fehr: "I'd say it might be the best day we had, which isn't to paint too overly optimistic of a picture. There's still a lot of work to do, and a lot to be done, but we will be back at it tomorrow morning."

That was not quite what Dakis and the rest of the hockey world were waiting to hear, but for one night, it was enough.

"I came for more than autographs," said the 40-year-old fan, who was born in Toronto, but grew up a Rangers fan in New York. "I came hoping for good news, some kind of positive news. I've got my food and snacks. I came prepared."

The NHL and NHLPA did not bring food, so they broke for dinner shortly before 8 p.m. When they did, Dakis got to take a picture with Penguins co-owner Mario Lemieux, Kings president of business operations Luc Robitaille and NHL chief disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan—or, as they are better known, three hockey legends.

"I asked them all how it was going," Dakis said. "I asked if we'll have hockey, and (Lemieux) said maybe. Shanahan said the same thing—they're trying. As long as I see effort, at least I know they're trying."

They were trying, meeting for eight hours in total before calling it a night. There were big group sessions with the 18 players and six owners in attendance, there were smaller breakout sessions, and there were internal meetings. Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr were in the building, but not part of the talks.

Bettman and Fehr have drawn the greatest amount of bile from fans and their collective-bargaining opposition, but their step back from the negotiating table was not the only reason for progress being made. With the NHL owners meeting in Manhattan on Wednesday, the time was right to get down to business. Really, though, the time has been right for a long time.

"My first reaction to the lockout was you've got to blame Bettman," said Dakis, who remained outside on the street into the night, eschewing his plans to see Everclear and Eve 6 at the Gramercy Theatre. "You can't have three lockouts. The players, I want to side with them, but at the end of the day, they're making millions. Who's losing? It's us. And my friends who work at Madison Square Garden, they've got to get back to work and start making money again."

That is the goal on both sides, as players and owners alike know that the longer the lockout drags on—Wednesday is Day 81—the harder it will be to lure back fans. The hardest of hardcore fans, like Dakis, will be back, but even he talked about ceasing his purchases of NHL merchandise, while wearing a New York Yankees t-shirt. But he also knew that such a personal boycott would go away eventually.

That is, once there is a deal, which there still is not—at least not yet.

"You come this far, and you've agreed on everything else, just hammer it out," Dakis said. "You're there. Somebody has to give. Just do it. If you've hammered out everything else except a couple of things, stay in there and get it done."

They did not quite do that, but for the first time since well before the lockout began, there is no longer a sense of impending doom. That and a photo with three NHL legends is enough to put a smile on a diehard hockey fan's face for a night.